A Banh Mi for Two
Books | JUVENILE FICTION / General
4
Trinity Nguyen
In this sweet sapphic romance about two foodies in love, Vivi meets Lan while studying abroad in Vietnam and they spend the semester unraveling their families' histories—and eating all the street food in Sài Gòn. In Sài Gòn, Lan is always trying to be the perfect daughter, dependable and willing to care for her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall. Her secret passion, however, is A Bánh Mì for Two, the food blog she started with her father, but has stopped updating since his passing.Meanwhile, Vietnamese American Vivi Huynh, has never been to Việt Nam. Her parents rarely even talk about the homeland that clearly haunts them. So Vivi secretly goes to Vietnam for a study abroad program her freshman year of college. She’s determined to figure out why her parents left, and to try everything she’s seen on her favorite food blog, A Bánh Mì for Two.When Vivi and Lan meet in Sài Gòn, they strike a deal. Lan will show Vivi around the city, helping her piece together her mother’s story through crumbling photographs and old memories. Vivi will help Lan start writing again so she can enter a food blogging contest. And slowly, as they explore the city and their pasts, Vivi and Lan fall in love.
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Author
Trinity Nguyen
Pages
224
Publisher
Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
Published Date
2024-08-20
ISBN
125091082X 9781250910820
Community ReviewsSee all
"A cute, delectable read! Nothing too complicated, but a book that does not shy away from expressing strong themes about family, mother-daughter relationships, cultural identity, and love. "
I
Ireland
"This was a cute little sapphic romance, but I was surprised at how it was a little more layered than I thought. There’s a lot of themes on family and culture, even for a book that’s shorter than the average YA romance, and it managed to all come together nicely. Also, the setting was absolutely beautiful and descriptive, and now I have to go research all the food they mentioned in this book, because I’ve never heard of most of it and it all sounded delicious. Vivi and Lan’s romance was also really cute, but it felt a little rushed given the number of pages we had available, with the whole “I really like you” confession and kiss coming earlier than I expected and sort of out of nowhere, and after that it wasn’t really brought up again until the end of the book. Also the 3rd act breakup was really unnecessary- like the first kiss, it just came out of nowhere, and really happened due to pure miscommunication. And it was resolved within a chapter anyway, so it should’ve been either cut or at least better developed. However, this is mostly because of how short the book is, and I don’t think it needed to be any longer, since everything else was paced surprisingly well for such a detailed plot. So yeah, there was a good handful of technical issues with the romance, but it was still fluffy and cute, and I think that this is a decent read for fans of short but sweet sapphic romances, as while as Asian settings and deep family themes. "
Isabella Quinn
